Breanna kept coming up with lists of names, and I kept stalling. I thought we still had a lot of time.

The kids also had a lot of great ideas, their favorite being “Rift,” after the Great Rift Valley that cuts through Kenya.

Eventually, we narrowed down the list to John. The kids liked the fact that his nickname could be Jack, and I liked the fact that he would have the same name as my grandfather I never met: John “Jack” Walker.

We liked Harrison as a middle name (the middle name of my other grandfather), and to avoid it sounding the like the first line of limerick, we thought we could throw in Rift as a second middle name.

Breanna wanted to honor her dad and grandfather, both named Daniel, and thought we could replace Harrison with Daniel. I thought it might confuse people in our missionary circles to have a boy named Jack Daniel.

So the debate simmered until we reached the hospital in the US. As Breanna prepared for her C-section, I said “What about John Harrison Daniel?” I knew Daniel needed to be in there and unfortunately Rift would have to go.